Value chain · CLM-1156
In plain terms
The one worrying result at the fence-line level in 1978 was thinner eggshells in hens kept twelve weeks in a metal cage whose field strength was calculated rather than measured; the reviewers kept the worry because animals living near a rectenna would also be in reflected, uneven fields.
The claim as recorded
At the 1 mW/cm2 boundary level the 1978 review found one flagged effect and two nulls: chickens under 2435 MHz where "The power density of the 12-cm radiation was reported to be 1 mW/cm2 and the period of irradiation, which was continuous, was 12 weeks. Neither fertility nor hatchability of eggs was affected. No abnormalities were noted except for poorer quality of egg shells", a study in which "Power density was not measured but was calculated" in a multipath cage, which the reviewers say "do not relieve the concern that prolonged irradiation at seemingly low power densities may be harmful; it is quite possible that feral animals in certain environments near the periphery of an SPS rectenna would also encounter multipath radiations"; "no evidence of increased permeability" of the blood-brain barrier "in the wake of 2450-MHz CW radiations at or below 1 mW/cm2"; and rat thyroxine "transiently elevated after exposure of rats at 1 mW/cm2, and were depressed after exposure at 20 mW/cm2. None of the reported alterations was irreversible or resulted in morbidity".
Evidence behind this: T3-the review's summaries of three cited low-density studies with its own methodological caveat on one of them.
Scope and limits
THE EGGSHELL RESULT IS A CALCULATED-DENSITY, MULTIPATH-CAGE STUDY THE REVIEW ITSELF DISCOUNTS ON METHOD WHILE KEEPING THE CONCERN; it is not a measured effect at 10 W/m2. The blood-brain-barrier literature the review summarises was in dispute (Frey against Oscar and Hawkins, Merritt failing to replicate, PDF 28); the null is for CW 2450 MHz only.
What it assumes
The cited studies (Krueger et al. 1975, Lu et al. 1977, Frey and Oscar and Hawkins on the barrier, McRee et al. 1975) as the review summarises them; none is held.
Where it comes from
PDF 40 / printed 33: "The power density of the 12-cm radiation was reported to be 1 mW/cm2 and the period of irradiation, which was continuous, was 12 weeks. Neither fertility nor hatchability of eggs was affected. No abnormalities were noted except for poorer quality of egg shells from hens that were irradiated by 2435-MHz microwaves" (normalised); "Power density was not measured but was calculated" (raw); "do not relieve the concern that prolonged irradiation at seemingly low power densities may be harmful; it is quite possible that feral animals in certain environments near the periphery of an SPS rectenna would also encounter multipath radiations" (normalised). PDF 28 / printed 21: "Of import to SPS is that no evidence of increased permeability has been obtained in the wake of 2450-MHz CW radiations at or below 1 mW/cm2" (normalised). PDF 29 / printed 22: "serum thyroxine levels were transiently elevated after exposure of rats at 1 mW/cm2, and were depressed after exposure at 20 mW/cm2. None of the reported alterations was irreversible or resulted in morbidity" (normalised). PDF 39 / printed 32: quail embryos at 30 mW/cm2 for 4 hours, "None of the endpoints (hatchability, body mass, teratology, hematology) differed greatly among the six irradiated and six control groups" (normalised).
Basis: mW/cm2 CW at 2.4-2.45 GHz; weeks of exposure
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1156
CLM-1156, Energy Aperture, as of 1978-05.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-557
- CLM-1154In 1978 the literature said the fence-line level was well below anything known to cause disease over the short term, that no study had come...CLM-1155The 1978 reviewers did the sum for a small bird flying four kilometres through the beam centre and concluded it would probably die of heat...CLM-1157The reviewers said most of the older microwave-health literature could not be trusted on how much power the animals actually got, that...